Page 70 of Niccolo (Mafia Kings #7)

Niccolo

O nce we were on the verge of exhaustion and could barely move anymore, we finally got out of the shower.

By the time we were both dry – and had spent a good deal of time kissing and caressing each other – there was a knock at the door. I threw on a robe and went to greet the room service attendant.

Rather than sign the charge to the room, I paid him with five poker chips. He thanked me enthusiastically.

As soon as he left, I wheeled in the bucket of champagne and a plate of fresh strawberries surrounding a gigantic dollop of whipped cream.

I turned off the lights, opened the curtains, and let the dazzling nighttime lights of Macau serve as a backdrop.

“To our future partnership,” I toasted with a flute of champagne.

She smirked at my attempt to get her to switch sides. “For now, let’s just say, ‘To an amazing night in Macau.’”

I hadn’t won her over yet…

But that was alright.

It would make my eventual victory all the sweeter.

And she was right about it being an amazing night.

When we got into bed, I lay on my back while Sofia lay on her stomach, facing the opposite direction so she could stare out at the twinkling neon lights.

As we feasted and drank, I spent far more time looking at her beautiful body.

The curve of her lower back…

The swell of her ass.

I traced my finger lightly down the inside of her thighs, and she shivered with pleasure.

“Mmm… do you always negotiate with other consiglieres this way?” she asked humorously.

“Like I told you before, most consiglieres are fat, middle-aged men.”

“So… yes, then,” she joked.

“Very funny.”

“I thought it was. So, tell me: what’s your offer?”

“What do you mean, what’s my offer?” I asked, though I was 99% sure I knew exactly what she meant.

“You want me to leave Fausto and come work with you and your brothers. What’s your offer?”

I was right.

“It would help to know what he’s paying you. Scratch that – what he’s promising to pay you.”

“Ten million euros. Of which he’s paid me one million already.”

I stared at her. “You said you didn’t have anything to gamble with!”

She shrugged. “I lied.”

Fuck. I’d believed her at the time.

But as impressive as her ability to deceive me was, it wasn’t as impressive as another piece of information.

“You got that cheap motherfucker to pay you a million euros?!”

She smiled craftily. “After I basically extorted it out of him.”

“How?!”

“I said if he didn’t pay, I was going to stay at the poker tournament for the next three days.”

“Nicely played.”

“Thank you.”

“Does he know you and I are here together?”

“He knows I thought you were coming to Macau. He doesn’t know yet that you actually showed up.”

“So he doesn’t know about… this,” I said, tracing my finger down the inside of her thighs again.

She looked at me over her shoulder in amusement. “No, he definitely doesn’t know about that.”

I considered asking, Are you going to tell him?

But I didn’t want to have her counter with the obvious question:

Are you going to tell Dario?

I had to tell my brother.

I had no other choice.

So I avoided the topic altogether.

Instead I said, “We can offer you 15 million euros if you come over to our side.”

“So we’re negotiating now?”

“Of course.”

“Not a bad offer. Of course, you don’t have 15 million euros.”

“At the moment … thanks to you.”

“Actually, that was more Fausto than me. He’s the one who arranged everything. I just suggested it.”

“Impressive nonetheless.”

“Still, I might be willing to entertain the offer, depending on what you can provide me upfront.”

“A signing bonus,” I said drily.

“Exactly.”

I knew that we had roughly five million in Bitcoin left…

But I also knew both Roberto and Dario would balk at paying her to switch sides, even if it was by far the smartest thing we could do.

“I think I can swing a million,” I finally said.

“You think.”

“I’d have to run it past Dario first.”

“So… ‘no,’ then.”

I frowned. “No to my offer, or – ?”

“‘No,’ you won’t be able to pay me. Even if you do have enough to cover it, you need the funds to wage war. You can’t afford it, and your brother will say no.”

I sighed.

She knew I was between a rock and a hard place –

And she seemed to be enjoying it.

“What else would you take in payment?” I asked.

“So we’re continuing the negotiation, are we?”

“As long as you’ll take something other than money. For instance, we have dozens of old paintings worth a lot.”

“Why don’t you sell those to fund the war?”

“It might come to that, unfortunately.”

She acted like she was considering my offer, then said, “I’ll take a Michelangelo.”

“That would be worth considerably more than 15 million euros.”

“You’re the one who offered me a painting.”

“Besides the Sistine Chapel, he only did a handful of paintings. He was primarily a sculptor.”

“I’ll take a statue, then.”

“No Michelangelos, unfortunately.”

She smiled playfully. “No deal, then, unfortunately.”

“You know, you made it very inconvenient when you made me swear to not kill you,” I said with mock irritation.

She smirked. “You should’ve kept playing poker, then.”

“We could keep playing now. We could order up a pack of cards from room service.”

“Why?” Then she realized. “Ohhhh – you want to ask a question.”

I gave her a half smile. “…maybe.”

“Ask away.”

“But you’re not obligated to answer,” I pointed out.

“You can ask anyway. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”

I grinned. “I’ve gotten lucky quite a bit tonight.”

“Maybe you’ll continue your streak, then.”

“Alright: why are you in Hong Kong?”

“I’m not in Hong Kong. I’m in Macau.”

“You little brat,” I said, at which point she giggled. “Alright – why are you in Macau?”

“Why… to fuck you, of course.”

“And that’s why you came all this way, huh.”

“Mm-hm.”

“You could’ve made it a lot easier on both of us and just hooked up with me back in Italy.”

“But then you would have tried to kill me.”

“I suppose there is that tiny wrinkle,” I admitted. While she was looking straight at me, I went for the kill, hoping she would flinch. “Did you talk to Mr. Lau?”

Her expression lapsed into neutral blankness, and she didn’t say anything.

Her face wasn’t giving anything away –

So I bluffed.

“You did,” I said with feigned smugness. “I can tell.”

Her face didn’t change one bit.

I was almost positive she’d talked to Lau…

But I couldn’t be absolutely sure.

She had a better poker face than I’d given her credit for.

I considered my options: press on, or just give up.

I could keep spouting bullshit about how I knew what she’d done, but that would make me look try-hard –

So I quit while I was ahead.

“Alright… I guess we’ll see how it turns out,” I said.

She didn’t reply.

“And I suppose we’ll resume trying to kill each other once we get back to Italy,” I said with weary resignation.

“I suppose so. What do you want to do in the meantime?”

“Well… I could fuck your brains out some more.”

“See?” she said as she sat up, crawled up on my lap, and straddled me. “ Now you’re negotiating.”

“I kind of already gave away my leverage, though, by fucking you so much already,” I said playfully.

“No,” she teased, dangling her breasts right in front of my face. “You gave me a taste… and now I want more.”

So I gave her some more.

I gave her a lot more.